Great ghosts!

You haven't disappointed me so far. A few of you have been brave enough to send in your own stories of strange supernatural occurances, and they've been great. I've got strange smells, opening and closing doors and sounds -- all unexplainable. And no, I don't think you're crazy.

Also interesting is everyone that has told me their stories says they are Christians, and they're trying to make sense of their experience and what they've been taught about death.

I could still use a few more to flesh out the story. Please send me your tales of mystery and I'll put them together for a piece in a couple of weeks. My e-mail is dhaag@gannett.com.

Supernatural encounters? Please share!

Call them ghosts, spirits, angels or demons, it seems like everyone has a story of some sort of encounter with the supernatural.

At the weekend's conference, author Christine Wicker told a story about her father. As a child, one of his neighborhood children died mysteriously and was buried on a hill near his home. One day while playing outside, he saw some figures wearing what he thought were choir robes around the grave. When he asked his mother about them, she said no one was there.

On a spookier level, we also heard from Guillermo Fuentes of San Antonio Paranormal Investigations. He had all kinds of stories about lights turning on and off, mysterious balls of light and objects moving for no apparent reason.

So that got me thinking - what are your supernatural experiences? Please e-mail me at dhaag@gannett.com with your story and your name (I promise you aren't the only one) and I'll work them into a story for later in the month.

Eschatology, ghosts and forgiveness

No one could ever say the Religion Newswriters are single-minded. We've talked about a little bit of everything in today's sessions. Some of them will make great stories for when I return. Others will make good blog items. And still others are just short observations that I share now.

* Many people believe in or claim to have experiences with ghosts or the paranormal. But many of those same people are church goers with beliefs in heaven and hell. How are the two things reconciled?

* In a panel on the end times, Darrell Bock of the Dallas Theological Seminary argued that the strange images in the book of Revelation is not the first century author trying to make sense of 21st century life. Instead he said the book uses standard images and symbols of the time. Of course, Jesus could return at any time so we should be ready. More on the eschatology panel later - fascinating stuff....

* A counselor who specializes in forgiveness said forgiveness can only be achieved after someone has grieved - it is rarely an automatic response. It comes from a place where we realize we no longer want to be part of the hurt.

* And I'm coming home with a stack of books. All of them look fascinating if you're interested: "Mormon America" by Dick and Joan Ostling; "Faith in the Halls of Power" by Michael Lindsay; "Jesus Freaks" by Don Lattin and "Not in Kansas Anymore" by Christine Wicker